CVE-2020-12880: Ivanti Connect Secure

Medium severity, CVSS 5.5. EPSS: 0.5% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

An issue was discovered in Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) and Pulse Connect Secure (PCS) Virtual Appliance before 9.1R8. By manipulating a certain kernel boot parameter, it can be tricked into dropping into a root shell in a pre-install phase where the entire source code of the appliance is available and can be retrieved. (The source code is otherwise inaccessible because the appliance has its hard disks encrypted, and no root shell is available during normal operation.)

Affected products

• Ivanti Connect Secure: version 9.1 only
• Ivanti Policy Secure: version 9.1 only
• Pulse Secure Pulse Connect Secure: up to and including 9.0
• Pulse Secure Pulse Policy Secure: up to and including 9.0

Published 2020-07-27. Last modified 2026-06-17.